Blog Archives for July 2011

California Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi has removed a proposed ban on male circumcision in San Francisco from the city’s November ballot. She based her ruling on two grounds: the likely conflict between the proposed law and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion and the certain preemption of the local ordinance by state law, which has exclusive authority to regulate medical procedures.

Amy Winehouse, the London singer who died last week and famously sang that she wouldn't go to rehab, is finally in rehab. It's too late for Winehouse, of course, but her image has been in rehabilitation mode since news broke of her death.

The Texas Board of Education has unanimously approved scientifically
accurate high school biology textbook supplements from established
mainstream publishers, and rejected creationist-backed
supplements.

Agamemnon. Robin Hood. Jesus. Muhammad. Many stories are told about individuals with these names. Did any of these individuals actually exist? To answer that question, we must first address some logically prior ones: What does it mean to assert that an individual existed? Are there certain key statements about a person which must be true before we can conclude the claim of existence has been confirmed?

In the travesty of justice that was the Casey Anthony Murder trial in Orlando, two things may have escaped the reader's notice. The first is that the O.J. Simpson jury must have moved with O.J. to Florida and made themselves available to serve at the Anthony trial. The second concerns the involvement of "psychics." Did, in fact, a "psychic" divine the location of the remains of little Caylee Anthony, who was long sought after she went missing from her Orlando, Florida, home in the summer of 2008?

An inspiring narrative of humanity—of strength, values, and triumph—The First Grader should attract humanists in droves, perhaps especially secular humanists (i.e., atheists with hearts), since its messages are entirely secular. The story is all the more relevant for being "Based on a true story."

I am proud that my state government has at last, on June 25, 2011, passed legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, and that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo—who personally lobbied for its passage, as I voted for him to do—promptly signed it into law.

I recently provided an analysis of a UFO video that was allegedly shot in London, England. The piece appeared on CBS News, Fox News, Yahoo News, The Free Republic, and elsewhere. Reactions to my UFO video analysis were interesting: Many people thought I was obviously wrong; some thought I was obviously right, and a small handful gave compliments. Such is the life of a professional science-based investigator.